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The Yueren song was a song in Yue language recorded in the 6th century BC by 鄂君子皙 Ngạc quân tử tích. This song has been extensively studied by Chinese historians and linguists for many decades because it's one of the few pieces of Yue language left.

This afternoon, I spent about 2 hours to examine the language in this song and I found it fit into modern Vietnamese quite well.

Before going into details, I want you to keep in mind the following:

1) This song was recorded approximately 2500 years ago, therefore you can't expect any modern language to fit perfectly into the song because all languages have changed a lot after 2500 years;

2) Vietnamese language has gone under heavy influence from Chinese and therefore many ancient Viet words were replaced by Chinese words. As a result, sometimes you can't find a modern Viet word that match the word in the Yueren song because that word was replaced by a Sino-Viet word;

3) The recording of the sound of the words in the Yueren song couldn't be 100% exact. Think about it, if you're a Chinese who doesn't know any English and you are to record the sound of an English song using Chinese characters, can you be 100% accurate in the recording of the sound?

4) The song couldn't be translated literally or word-for-word into Chinese. Think about translating a Chinese song to English and vice versa, you have to modify the song a lot in order for it to make sense in the language that it's translated into;

5) The song was recorded while it was being sung by a Yue girl; therefore, the tones of the word could be distorted or misheard because of the melody of the song.

6) The reconstruction of Chinese characters by linguists can never be exact but only close to the original sound.

Now let's take a look at the Yueren song.

滥兮抃草滥予？
昌枑泽予？
昌州州湛[饣甚]
州焉乎秦胥胥
缦予乎昭澶秦逾渗
惿随河湖

Here are two Chinese translations I found:

1)

晚今是晚哪？
正中船位哪？
正中王府王子到达。
王子会见赏识我小人感激感
天哪知王子与我小人游玩。
小人喉中感受

2)

今夕何夕兮？搴洲中流。 今日何日兮？得与王子同舟。
蒙羞被好兮，不訾诟耻。 心几顽而不绝兮，得知王子。
山有木兮木有枝，心悦君兮君不知。


Here, I'll stick to the first translation because it's simpler.
If you have any other translated version of this song, please share it with me.


Now let's see how the words in this song match Vietnamese. I will post each sentence in Chinese characters first, then Mandarin pinyin, then Sino-Vietnamese, then Old Chinese Reconstructions of Karlgren and Starostin (characters that have no reconstruction would be put in a bracket [ ] with a question mark next to it), then I'll list the possible translations of the sentence, then I'll match them with Vietnamese words.

(I use the Old Chinese reconstruction of Karlgren and Starostin because these are the only two that I have access to)

The first sentence is 滥兮抃草滥予？
Mandarin pinyin: làn xi biàn căo làn yú?
Sino-Vietnamese: Lạm hề biện thảo lạm dư?
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: glâm jiei b'ian ts'ôg glâm dio
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: [滥?] g(h)ēj b(h)rens shūʔ [滥?] Ła
This sentence was translated as "Which day is it today?" or "Which night is it tonight?"

The word 滥 reads Lạm in Sino-Vietnamese. Karlgren reconstructed this word as glâm and it was matched with the word haemx in Zhuang language, which also means "night". I don't know what reason Karlgren gave for the reconstruction of a [g] before [lam], but with this reconstruction, it could go glam --> gam --> gham --> haem in Zhuang language.

Well, in Vietnamese language, we also have the word hôm, which could mean "night" or "day", depending on which word it goes with.

In the phrase "đêm hôm khuya khoắc", hôm there means "night".
In the phrase "sao hôm", hôm there also means "night" (sao hôm = evening star).
In the phrase "hôm nay", however, hôm means "day". Hôm nay = today; hôm qua = yesterday.
In the phrase "sớm hôm", hôm there means "night". (sớm = early, morning; hôm = night; sớm hôm = from morning to night)

Vietnamese "hôm" is undoubtedly related to Zhuang "haem" (night), but Vietnamese "hôm" can mean both "day" and "night". And perhaps because of this reason, the Chinese translations have both "which day is it today?" and "which night is it tonight?"

But besides "hôm", Vietnamese also has the word "đêm", which means "night" as well. However, unlike the word "hôm" which could mean both "day" and "night, the word "đêm" only means "night".

The initial of the word "đêm" is very close to the initial of 滥 in Chinese and Sino-Vietnamese (Lạm). We know that Vietnamese đ has a "flapping" sound that makes it sound similar to [l] and it is usually mispronounced as [l] by Chinese Vietnamese. If any Vietnamese lives near a Chinese community in Vietnam, they will know that the first-generation Chinese in Vietnam usually say "li lâu" instead of "đi đâu", "ở lây" instead of "ở đây". It seems that Chinese can't pronounce the Vietnamese đ and change it to l. Besides, interchanging of [t], [d] and [l] is common. Therefore, we can make a connection between Vietnamese "đêm" (night) and 滥 lam (supposed to mean "day" or "night").

Furthermore, Vietnamese "hôm" and "đêm" sound quite similar and could be a split from glam (reconstructed by Karlgren)
glam ~ gam ~ gham ~ ham ~ hôm
glam ~ lam ~ đam ~ đêm

Hôm nay = today ; hôm qua = yesterday
Đêm nay = tonight; đêm qua = yesterday night

So now we see the connection between 滥 (glam) and Vietnamese hôm and đêm.

Next, let's look at the word 兮. This word was constructed as jiei by Karlgren and as g(h)ēj by Starostin.

Chinese linguists matched this word with the word "neix" in Zhuang, and though I don't know Zhuang language, I suppose that neix goes with haemx must mean "tonight" or "today" in Zhuang language?

To be honest, I don't know how they could match jiei with nei. I suppose they followed a pattern that is similar to that of 人 [jan] in Cantonese and [nan] in Teochew?
Anyway, for your information, Vietnamese language does also have the word "này" which means "this". Hôm nay = today ; đêm nay = tonight. (Nay is just a variant of the word "này").

Still, I want to talk about the reconstruction of g(h)ēj by Starostin.

g(h)ēj sounds like the word "kia" in Vietnamese, which means "that". Putting the word "kia" after the words "đêm" and "hôm", we have "đêm kia" (that night) and "hôm kia" (that day, the day before yesterday). So the meaning of "kia" in modern Vietnamese is a little bit different from the meaning of 兮 g(h)ēj. (this)

However, as I said, languages have changed a lot over 2500 years and what meant "this" 2500 years ago could mean "that" today. Besides, for your information, Vietnamese people do have a tendency of switching the meaning "this" to the meaning "that" just by changing the tone of the words.

Examples:

này = this ; nấy = that
cái này = this one; cái nấy = that one
đây = here ; đấy = there
ở đây = at here; ở đấy = at there

With the above examples, I want to show you that the meaning of "this" and "that" can change slightly over time, and it is possible that the word "kia" used to mean "this" in ancient Viet language, but in modern Viet language it means "that".

So to sum it up, the word 兮 can be either "này" or "kia" in Vietnamese language.

If it's này, then you have "hôm/đêm nay", which means "today" (or tonight).
If it's kia, then you have "hôm/đêm kia", which means "that day" (or that night); but languages evolve over time so you can assume that it used to mean "this day" (or this night) in ancient Viet language.


Now let's skip to the end of the sentence.
You have the phrase 滥予 at the end of the sentence.

If the phrase 滥兮 means "this night", then the phrase 滥予 should mean "which/what night" (So you can have the translation "which night is tonight?")

The word 予 is reconstructed as dio by Karlgren and Ła by Starostin.
This word 予 is supposed to mean "which" or "what".

In modern Vietnamese we have the word "nào" for "which", and "gì, chi, sao" for "what".
The word "nào" sounds close to dio and Ła. It is known among linguists that many modern Vietnamese n came from [d].

For example:

nắng (sunny) <-- đắng (In Mường language, it's still đắng)
nước (water) <-- đác
náng (palm, sole) <-- đáng

Therefore, it is possible that modern Viet nào came from đào, and therefore very close to dio or Ła

Also, Vietnamese language has the word "đâu" which means "where". Both nào and đâu sound similar and both are interrogative words, so perhaps they were once used interchangeably, or perhaps they both stemmed from the same interrogative word in the ancient time used for all "what, where, which, who".

In summary, 滥予 could be "đêm/hôm nào" or "đêm/hôm đâu" in Vietnamese (assuming that "đâu" used to be an interrogative word with the same function as "nào").


Now back to the middle of the sentence with the phrase 抃草.
The old pronunciation of these words were reconstructed as b'ian ts'ôg by Karlgren and b(h)rens shūʔ by Starostin.

The phrase 抃草 (b'ian ts'ôg or b(h)rens shūʔ) sounds like "biết chắc" or "biết chăng" in Vietnamese.

biết sounds like b'ian and b(h)rens except for the ending, but remember that the song was recorded when it was being sung by a Yue girl, so it was possible that the -t ending was changed to the -n ending because the music note was long. Even today if you listen to Vietnamese songs, you'll notice that -p, -t, -c, -ch endings are changed into -m, -n, -ng, -nh endings respectively when the music notes are long or when the pitch of the notes are slightly off from the pitch of the tones. To the ears of Vietnamese, they are still -p, -t, -c, -ch (because we are used to words in the our language), but to the ears of foreigners they'll sound more like -m, -n, -ng, -nh.

chắc sounds like ts'ôg and shūʔ. The ʔ in shūʔ could be equivalent to -k ending.

Vietnamese chăng probably has origin from the word chắc. Today, "chăng" in Vietnamese is a questioning word. "Chắc" literally means "sure" but it can be used as a questioning word like "chăng" too.

For examples:

- Cậu biết cô ấy là ai chắc? (You know who she is, sure?)
- Cậu biết cô ấy là ai chăng? (You know who she is, not?)
- Biết chắc anh ấy đang làm gì? (know what he is doing? (questioning one's self))
- Biết chăng anh ấy đang làm gì? (know what he's doing? (questioning one's self))
- Chắc cậu bé đã trưởng thành (perhaps, the little boy has grown up)
- (Phải) chăng cậu bé đã trưởng thành (perhaps, the little boy has grown up)

So you see that at first, "chắc" (which literally means "sure") was used as a questioning word. Later, this questioning word developed into "chăng". So now, we have the word "chăng" that has similar function as the word "chắc" in term of questioning, but it doesn't carry the meaning "sure" of the word "chắc".

Anyway, when you place the phrase "biết chắc" or "biết chăng" into the sentence, it makes perfect sense even in modern Vietnamese.

滥兮抃草滥予 - glâm jiei b'ian ts'ôg glâm dio

Đêm nay biết chắc đêm nào? or Đêm nay biết chăng đêm nào?

The main idea of the sentence is "tonight is what night?" but it's not simply that. It could be translated as "Does anyone know which night is tonight?" But she's not asking anyone. She's asking herself. It's hard to translate it perfectly into another language because of that ambiguous questioning created by the phrase "biết chắc" or "biết chăng", yet this kind of questioning is what Vietnamese use in their folk songs and poetry all the time.


Now, let's look at the next sentence: 昌枑泽予？
Mandarin pinyin: chang hù zé yú?
Sino-Vietnamese: Xương hộ trạch dư?
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: t'iang g'o d'àk dio
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: Thaŋ g(h)ā(ʔ)s [泽?] Ła?
This sentence was translated as "正中船位哪？" (which honorable person is inside the boat?)

The character 昌 was reconstructed as t'ang or thang and I matched it with the word "trong" in modern Vietnamese which means "inside".
The word trong came from tlong and tlong sounds quite similar to thang.

The word 枑 was reconstructed as g'o or g(h)ā(ʔ)s and I matched it with the word "ghe" in modern Vietnamese which means "a small boat"

So 昌枑 (t'iang g'o) would be "tlong ghe" (inside the boat) in Vietnamese.

泽 (d'ak or lak) could be match with the word "là" in Vietnamese (though the endings are off), which means "to be".

If so, then 予 (dio) would take the meaning of "who". (昌枑泽予？= Inside the boat is whom?)

It's possible that in the ancient time there was one common interrogative word that was used for all "which, what, who, where". That's why in the above sentence 予 means "which/what" but in this sentence it means "who".

I said above that 予 could be matched with the word "đâu" or "nào" in modern Vietnamese.

So 昌枑泽予 when matched with Vietnamese would be "trong ghe là nào (ai)" .

However, there's another possibility that 泽 (d'ak or lak) was a Yue word used to indicate an honorable person. However, in modern Vietnamese, this word has been lost and replaced by the Sino-Viet word "vị" 泽.

If so, then 予 would take the meaning of "which/what" as in the above sentence.

It's also possible that 泽 (d'ak or lak) was a combination of the phrase "là ngài". Ngài could sound like "gài". (note that ngài was an older form of "người").

"Là gài nào?" could have been misheard in the song and became "lag nao", especially when the note on "là" was long and the note on "gài" was quick.

If so then 昌枑泽予 (t'iang g'o làk dio) would be "tlong ghe là-gài nào?" (Which person is inside the boat?)


Next: 昌州州湛[饣甚]

Mandarin pinyin: chang zhou zhou shèn?
Sino-Vietnamese: xương châu châu thậm?
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: t'iang tiôg tiôg kâm
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: Thaŋ [州州] d(h)ǝmʔ
This sentence was translated as "正中王府王子到达" (Inside the boat, the prince comes)

The word 昌 has been matched with the "trong" (inside) in modern Vietnamese.

州州 was reconstructed as "dio dio". This word probably meant "the prince" in ancient Yue language, but we know that words for prince or royal people in modern Vietnamese are all Sino-Vietnamese: hoàng tử, vương tử, vương tôn etc. So it's understandable that we can't find a Viet word to match with this. The closest word I can think of is "chúa" but then it's controversial whether chúa has Viet origin or Han origin (though chúa is a Sino-Viet word, many SEA languages have words that are similar to the word chúa, so perhaps this was originally a native Viet word?).

湛 was reconstructed as d(h)ǝmʔ by Starostin and I matched it with the word "đến" in modern Vietnamese, which means "to come".
(Sidenote: Karlgren reconstructed 湛 as kam but I don't know how he could fit the k- in there and I can't find a Viet word to match it if it was kam)

Chinese linguists matched this word with the Zhuang word daengz (which I suppose mean "to come" too).

Viet đến and Zhuang daengz are similar anyway as the -n ending in Vietnamese is linked to the -ng ending in many other languages.

For example:

Viet chân (leg) --- Yao ching --- Thai ʒǝ:ŋ.A --- Khmer ʒaǝŋ
Viet bùn (mud) --- Thai pung (mud)
Viet đèn (light) --- Chinese 燈 đăng
Viet đền (to compensate) --- Chinese: 償 thường
Viet tên (name) --- Chinese 姓 tính (surname)
Viet chôn (burry) --- Chinese 喪 tang

So 昌州州湛 (t'ang dio dio d(h)ǝmʔ) when matched with Vietnamese would be "[bên] trong, chúa chúa đến" (Here I just use the word "chúa" which means "lord" in Vietnamese for 州州 though I know it's controversial)

Next sentence: 州焉乎秦胥胥

Mandarin pinyin: zhou yan hu qín xu xu
Sino-Vietnamese: châu yên hồ tần tư tư
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: tiôg gian g'o dz'ien siwo siwo
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: [州] ʔan wā ʒ́in sa sa
This sentence was translated as 王子会见赏识我小人感激感激

The word 州, as said above, means the "prince" or some term for a royal person. The closest Viet word to match this is chúa but it's doubtful.

I matched the word 焉 (gian or ʔan) with "nghiền" in modern Vietnamese.
Nowadays, the word "nghiền" in Vietnamese means "to addict". But the meaning "to love" and "to addict" is not much different. In the ancient Yue language it probably meant "to love something a lot" (as I said, meaning of words could change a lot after more than 2500 years)

The word 乎 was reconstructed as g'o by Karlgren and wā by Starostin.
I matched 乎 with the word "qua" in Viet, which means "I, me". Though today, this word is rarely used in Vietnamese, the Muong people still have the word "qua" for "I, me".

秦 and 胥胥 were probably some Yue words to describe emotions and I admit that many words for emotion in Vietnamese today are Sino-Vietnamese, therefore it was hard for me to find some pure Viet words to match 秦 and 胥胥. Nevertheless, I tried and here are what I come up with.

I matched 秦 (dz'ien or z'in) with "thẹn" in Vietnamese (also a variant "tẽn"). Remember that Viet t- and th- came from [s] or initials that are similar to [s]. So thẹn and tẽn were something like sẹn and xẽn.

Modern Vietnamese "thẹn" or "tẽn" means "feeling shy" or "ashamed"…as when a man asks a young woman to go on a date with him, she shyly says "yes"…"thẹn thùng" is a word usually used to describe girls or young women when they feel shy and have blushful face.

I matched 胥 (sa or siwo) with the word "xao" in Vietnamese.

In modern Vietnamese, we have the word "xao xuyến" (or "xuyến xao") to describe an emotion (usually for some kind of love, some kind of longing), which the Vietnamese-English dictionary translates as "stirred, excited".

"Xao động" in Vietnamese is "agitated"
胥胥 would be "xao xao" in Vietnamese

Perhaps 秦 was a duplicate of 胥 "xao" (as in "xuyến xao"). Duplicating a word is a common phenomenon in Vietnamese (xao xuyến, bồi hồi, băn khoăn, vu vơ, lộng lẫy, xót xa…)

So 州焉乎秦胥胥 (tiôg gian g'o dz'ien siwo siwo) when matched with Vietnamese would be "chúa nghiền, qua thẹn [và] xao xao" (vương tử yêu, thiếp thẹn và thấy xao xuyến) ~ the prince loves, I feel shy but happy


Next sentence: 缦予乎昭澶秦逾渗
Mandarin pinyin: màn yú hu zhào chán qín yú shèn
Sino-Vietnamese: Man dư hồ chiêu thiền tần du sấm
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: mwân dio g'o t'jog d'ân dz'ien diu ts'âm
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: [缦] Ła wa taw dan ʒ́in lo [渗]
This sentence was translated as: 天哪知王子与我小人游玩。

The word 缦 was reconstructed as mwân by Karlgren. Chinese linguists matched this word with the word ngoènz in Zhuang language to mean "day" (ngoenz sounds like ngày in Vietnamese).

I matched this word with "buổi" in Vietnamese. The meaning of "buổi" is similar to "hôm" and "ngày" but it refers to only half of a day. We have phrases like "buổi trước", "buổi ấy" (mean "the day before", "that day"). Perhaps a variant of "buổi" is "bữa". Bữa means "day", and it also means "meal, repast". We also have phrases like "bữa trước", "bữa ấy" (equivalent to "buổi trước" and "buổi ấy").

b in buổi matches with m in mwan.
u in buổi matches with w in mwan
ô in matches with a in mwan

The only thing that seems strange is the -i and the -n ending.

Now I want to point out that there is a pattern of interchanging of [n] ending and [ i] ending from Chinese to Vietnamese as well as from other languages to Vietnamese.

Examine the following cases:

Chinese 鮮 (Sino-Viet: tiên) ~ Vietnamese tươi "fresh"
Chinese 線 (Sino-Viet: tuyến) ~ Vietnamese sợi "string, filament"
Chinese 奔 (Sino-Viet: bôn) ~ Vietnamese vội "to be in hurry, haste"

You see the [n] ending in Chinese and Sino-Vietnamese turn out to be [ i] in native Vietnamese.

Why does that happen?

Because many [n] ending in Old Chinese was [r]. Examples:

鮮 shar ---> shan ---> sjen ---> tiên in Sino Viet
線 sor --> son --> sjwèn --> tuyến in Sino Viet
奔 poǝ̄rs --> poǝ̄n --> bôn in Sino Viet

If in Chinese [r] became [n] ending, in Vietnamese, it became [ i]

鮮 shar --> shai --> suoi --> tươi in Vietnamese
線 sors --> sợi in Vietnamese
奔 poǝ̄rs --> pội --> vội in Vietnamese

The pattern of [r] becoming [ i] in Vietnamese can also be seen in the following cases:

Chinese 唆 sōr ---> Vietnamese xui, xúi "to urge, to incite, to induce"
Chinese 熯 sŋārʔ ---> Vietnamese sấy "to dry or burn over fire"

There was a time when Chinese confused the [r] ending with the [n] ending; later both [r] ending and [n] ending were merged to become [n] ending.

So buổi could have been something like bwor and was transcribed as 缦 mwân into Chinese.

The variant "bữa" (means "day, meal") further supports an ancient form that is similar to bwor

Furthermore, Viet "buổi" and "bữa" are connected to "ngày" through "mwân" and the Zhuang word "ngoenz".
Chinese linguists link mwan to ngoenz in Zhuang.
Yet mwan sounds similar to buổi and bữa in Vietnamese.
While Zhuang ngoenz sounds similar to Viet ngày.
Tai language has the word *ŋa:i.A for "morning meal" and *ŋwa.A for "yesterday" and *ŋwan.A for "day".
Note that the meaning of "morning meal" and "day" are similar to the meaning of "bữa" (meal, day) in Vietnamese.

So in the old time, the word could have been something like ŋbwar. Then this word was splitted into several different words.

In Vietnamese, it's ŋbwar --> ŋar --> ngày (day) and ŋbwar --> bwar ---> bữa and buổi (meal, day, half a day)
In Zhuang, it's ŋbwar ---> ŋwar ---> ngoan (day)
In Thai, it's ŋbwar ---> ŋwar --> ŋwaj (morning meal) and ŋbwar --> ŋwar --> ŋwan (day)

When the Chinese recorded this word in the Yuerensong, they heard ŋbwar and recorded it as mwan.

予 was already matched with đâu or nào in Vietnamese.
缦予 (mwân dio) would be "buổi nào" or "bữa nào" or "ngày nào"

乎 was already matched with "qua" in Vietnamese. But in this case, I suggest that it means "we" instead of "I, me" (Like "ta" could mean both "I" and "we" in Vietnamese).

昭澶 was reconstructed as taw dan in Starostin and t'jog d'ân by Karlgren.

I matched this word with "đu đưa" in Vietnamese.

In modern Vietnamese, the phrase "đu đưa" is used to describe the motion of "swaying back and forth". You can "đu đưa" on a swing, a cradle, and of course on a boat in the middle of a river too.

đu sounds similar to taw and t'jog as reconstructed by Starostin and Karlgren.

đưa was probably something like dur or dor and was transcribe as d'ân by Chinese (as said above, there was a time when Chinese confused -r ending with -n ending).

This is similar to the case of "chua" (sour). Modern Viet chua was probably from something like "chur", similar to 酸 śūr in Old Chinese. But later when -r ending was confused with -n ending, Chinese changed it to son then swan (toan in Sino-Vietnamese).

Similarly you can argue that "mưa" (rain) was something like mur or bur (~ mul, mol, mun, mon, bul, bol, bun, bon in other languages).

mây (cloud) was from something like mar or mor (~ mal, mol, man, mon in other languages).

But let's set this aside and back to the Yueren song.

In the phrase 逾渗, 逾 was reconstructed as diu by Karlgren and lo by Starostin.

I matched 逾 with the word "trôi" in Vietnamese which means "flowing, drifting"

We know many tr- in modern Vietnamese came from bl-

Examples: trăng <-- blăng; trời <-- blời; trái <-- blái; tro <-- blo

Therefore, it is very possible that Vietnamese trôi came from blôi.

Traces of blôi can be seen in the word bơi lội (swimming). Today bơi and lội are two separate words and can go alone, but they usually go together and were probably a split from the word blôi (meaning "to drift, to flow")

Another Viet word that is related to blôi and lội is nổi ("to float").

So to sum it up.

blôi --> bơi and lội (both mean "to swim" but the meanings are slightly different)
blôi --> trôi (means "drifting, flowing")
blôi --> nổi (nổi "floating")

blôi in ancient Vietnamese could have all of the above meanings (drifting, flowing, floating, swimming) and it also sounds close to 逾 "lo"

渗 was reconstructed as ts'âm

I matched this word with the word "suối" in Vietnamese which means "stream", though the endings are different. The -m ending in ts'âm was probably some kind of suffix. In Vietnamese today, we have the phrase "suối mơ" which means "dreamy stream" used to describe beautiful scenaries. The Yue girl probably sang "súi mơ" (assuming that Viet language at that time didn't have complicated vowels like uối), but the note on súi was long and the note on mơ was quick, so it got recorded as "súm"

So 逾渗 (lo ts'âm) when matched with Vietnamese would be "blôi súi-mơ" (means: drifting a long a dreamy stream or floating on a dreamy stream).

So to sum up, the sentence 缦予乎昭澶秦逾渗 (mwân dio g'o t'jog d'ân dz'ien lo ts'âm) when matched with Vietnamese would be "buổi nào qua [lại] đu đưa thẹn trôi suối-mơ" (which could be roughly translated to English as "will there be another day when we can be together on the swaying boat, drifting along the beautiful stream").

If some of you wonder why I didn't incorporate the word "thẹn" (shy, shyly) into the English translation, it's because it would sound awkward in English if I do. However in Vietnamese, it sounds perfectly fine. Like "thẹn bước trên đường" (shyly walk on the road), "thẹn trôi trên sông" (shyly flow along the river).


The last sentence: 惿随河湖

Old Chinese Reconstruction of Karlgren: ziek zwie g'â g'o
Old Chinese Reconstruction of Starostin: [惿随] ghāj ghā
This sentence was translated as: 小人喉中感受。

When I look at the phrases "ziek zwie" and "g'â g'o", I think of "tức thở" and "nghẹn ngào" in Vietnamese.

Since many Vietnamese t came from s, tức thở would be xức sở in Old Vietnamese. Though "xức sở" is not exactly like "ziek zwie", it is quite close.

"tức thở" in modern Vietnamese means to feel suffocatting, unable to breath.

"nghẹn ngào" in modern Vietnamese means to feel choked by tears, choked with emotion.
(nghẹn means "choked", ngào is a duplicate of nghẹn; but "nghẹn ngào" means to be choked with emotion).

"nghẹn" has an -n ending so it doesn't match much with 河 g'â or ghāj.
河 was probably "ngạt", which means the same thing as "nghẹn"
"ngạt ngào" matches with 河湖 "g'â g'o" more than "nghẹn ngào"

or perhaps 河湖 g'â g'o was "ngạt cổ"? (cổ means "throat")

The phrase "nghẹn ngào" in modern Vietnamese (which means to be choked with emotion, to be overwhelmed with emotion, so much that makes a person unable to talk) probably stemmed from some old Viet phrases like ngạt cổ or nghẹn cổ (ngạt/nghẹn = choked; cổ = throat).

So 惿随河湖 when matched with Vietnamese would be "tức thở nghẹn ngào" (to be so overwhelmed with emotion that a person feel choked and unable to talk, speechless).

Now let's look at the whole song:

滥兮抃草滥予？glâm jiei b'ian ts'ôg glâm dio?
昌枑泽予? t'iang g'o d'àk dio?
昌州州湛 t'iang tiôg tiôg dâm
州焉乎秦胥胥 tiôg gian g'o dz'ien siwo siwo
缦予乎昭澶秦逾渗 mwân dio g'o t'jog d'ân dz'ien lo ts'âm
惿随河湖 ziek zwie g'â g'o

Vietnamese:

Hôm nay biết chắc hôm nào?
Trong ghe là-ngài nào?
Trong ghe, chúa chúa đến
Chúa nghiền, qua thẹn xao xao
Buổi nào [chúng] qua [lại] đu đưa thẹn trôi suối-mơ
[Ôi thiếp thấy] tức thở nghẹn ngào

English translation of Yueren song based on Vietnamese

Is there anyone know which night it is tonight? (or Is there anyone know which day it is today?)
Who is that person inside the boat?
Oh, Inside the boat is the prince
Being cherished by the prince, I feel shy but also stirred and happy.
Will there be another day when we can be together on the swaying boat, shyly drifting along the beautiful stream?
Oh I'm so overwhelmed with emotion.


Ok, that's it.

I know my "decoding" of the Yueren song based on modern Vietnamese language is not 100% solid and there may be some flaw or mistake in it, but please give me a break (as in don't be too harsh when you criticize my mistakes) as I am comparing a song written in a language that existed 2500 years ago transcribed into another language by non-native speakers of the original language with a modern language that has undergone much influence from Chinese. I don't think any expert linguist can match that language in Yueren song perfectly with any modern language, let alone an 18-year-old Vietnamese girl like me. But I just want to share what I've found…So any comment or correction on this?

liketolearn

Age: 20 years old)

Location: Southern California

Interests: Asian history and culture

Main Interest in CHF: Asian History

Specialisation / Expertise: Vietnamese language

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